1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector used in an OA device, a home electrical appliance, the internal wiring of an automobile or the like.
An object of the invention is to provide a connector in which a contact position of this connector with respect to a flat cable can be maintained.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a connector comprising: a support portion supported by a housing; connection end portions extending from the support portion in a bifurcated manner; and a projection portion disposed at least one of the connection end portions, wherein the connection end portions hold a flat cable to electrically connect to a conductor of the flat cable.
In the above construction, the projection portion, which can bite into the conductor of the flat cable, is formed on at least one of the connection end portions, and therefore the displacement of the contact position due to the deterioration of the connector, developing during the use thereof, is suppressed. Namely, even when the temperature gradient is large, and the connection end portions and the conductor are made of materials of different thermal expansion coefficients, respectively, the projection portion bites into the conductor of the flat cable, so that the point of contact between the connection portion and the conductor will not be displaced out of position, and therefore the press-contact position is maintained at the predetermined position.
For example, the narrow-angle of that side of the projection portion, opposed to the conductor of the flat cable, may be smaller than 150xc2x0, according to a second aspect of the invention, or the projection portion may have a curved shape portion formed on that side thereof opposed to the conductor of the flat cable, the curvature radius of the curved shape portion being smaller than 0.4 mm, according to a third aspect of the invention.